Harn MuseumGood Life Tour

Medium of the Art/ Technique of the Artist

This piece of art entitled "Old Man's Cloth" was located on the wall of the museum where you walk in. Upon initially seeing it, I wanted to get a closer look. It is an intricate piece of art and seeing it up close made such a difference. It is made from discarded bottle tops of brand name liquor bottles first introduced by colonists. Seeing the piece from afar or a picture online does not display the true beauty of it. The part that I found so intriguing was the intricate looks of each little piece. The light struck it at different parts making them illuminate more, which made the piece look beautiful holistically. I like how the artist incorporated different colors into it to make it more intricate. This piece was a great choice for the museum to display in the front because it truly does grab the attention of the viewer.

Design of the Museum

At the Harn Museum, there was a garden outside of one of the exhibits. This area was definitely my favorite. The huge window allows sunlight to illuminate into the room and light up the displays, adding to their beauty. Seeing the art displays with the sunlight hitting in back of it was amazing. The back garden is so peaceful and pretty too. The room is very large also, so each of the pieces of art displayed have space from each other. The garden is filled with trees, water, and different aspects of nature that make it so beautiful. Being in the garden made me feel very at peace and I liked walking around it and examining all of the nature. Even though I was very stressed the day I toured the Harn, but standing in solidity in the garden made me forget about everything for a few minutes. The combination of the garden and the large exhibit definitely made this my favorite part of the Harn Museum.

Art and Core Values

In the Harn Museum, there was a wall of different signs about women artists. Some of them were very sarcastic, and they all revolved around the central issue of gender equality. This is a very important value of mine because it in today's society, women are still sometimes discriminated for certain things, which I believe is wrong. The posters all brought out my passion for gender equality and really made me think about the issue. Obviously, it is a big problem that can not be automatically solved with one specific solution, but something must be done. I didn't know the extent of the inequality before seeing all of this information. Gender equality is very important to me because of my aspirations to become a doctor. When I reach this point in my life, I want to have the same opportunities that any doctor would, no matter my gender. Women have the same abilities as men as artists, so it is ridiculous for their art to be harder to sell or anything along those terms.

Art and the Goodlife

The "Seated Bodhisattva" is described as "a Buddha-to-be who refrains from entering enlightenment out of compassion for all others to reach the same goal." This relates to the Goodlife theme of the search for enlightenment and since we read Siddhartha in class, it was very easy for me to understand more about this piece of art. I felt like this statue was a perfect piece of art for me to choose, because not only does it convey the importance of the journey to the good life, but also does it in a way that fits perfectly into this course because we have studied so much about this culture and how they seek their enlightenment The statue manifests an aura of peace and serenity which is easier and more interesting for me with my knowledge about the journey to enlightenment, because I didn't know anything about it before this class. Seeing this statue made me think truly think about the importance of finding the good life in order to live your life to the best potential.